Our friends at the RSA, Zero Waste Scotland and Maklab and Architecture Design Scotland are putting together a series of workshops on getting people to think differently about waste, disposal, production – The Great Recovery Workshops.
It’s suitable for a range of people to go along, looks like it will be a great event. One of our Snook team will be there coming from a design perspective – it’s important we’re considering the total eco-system of designing for people when it comes to manufacturing, production, material and ultimately designing for public interaction which impacts on behaviour.
The RSA’s Great Recovery comes to Scotland!
Galloping resource prices, absolute and geopolitical material scarcities, environmental damage and waste economics mean that our ‘take-make-use-dispose’ models of doing business are no longer sustainable. The Great Recovery project is encouraging designers, engineers, technicians, manufacturers, brands and waste managers to think and do things differently. To design, manufacture, use and dispose of products in a way that fits with the world we actually live in.
These two pre-Christmas workshops aim to highlight the negative implications of linear systems upon business, technology and society. We will explore a number of waste streams (electronic products, textiles, food, packaging etc.) and highlight how design and improved business or service models can contribute to building a more circular economy. This isn’t some hippy nonsense: this is essential to securing Scotland’s economic and manufacturing future!
The workshops are designed to encourage participants from any industry or part of the ‘circular network’ to meet, debate and collaborate. They complement the work of Zero Waste Scotland and Innovate UK, to help you understand the challenges and opportunities around the circular economy and to design for a closed loop system. We will kick off with an investigation into end of life challenges, using practical ‘tear down’ exercises to explore the nature of supply chains, logistics, resource efficiency, waste and business or technical challenges. After this the focus will turn to the opportunities that exist for ‘designing up’ new products and services in different industries, and the analysis of systems thinking around a closed loop model.
Where &When?
– Monday 2nd February, 2015 A+DS, Edinburgh 12.30 – 17.00 book here
– Tuesday 3rd February 2015, MAKLab, Glasgow 10.00 – 15.00 book here
You should apply!
– If you are a practicing designer, are part of an in-house design team, commission designers or work on product development for clients.
– If you fit into any of the identified sectors in our circular network (designers, waste managers, materials specialists, policymakers, manufacturers, brands, investors & academics).
– If you are interested in applying for any of the Innovate UK competitions.
These are work-based professional workshops created to help you debate issues around material choices and product life cycles. We hope to be running a series of student specific workshops later in the programme. Please feel free to share the details of the workshops with any colleagues who would find the work relevant.
If you’re unable to join us during the day time but are interested in meeting up, come along for some festive drinks with the Great Recovery and Zero Waste Scotland teams at A+DS in Edinburgh from 18.30 – 20.30. To attend the reception please visit the booking page.